Popping In

I apologize for the lag between posts here, but there is a good reason for it. The magazine’s baseball preview was put to bed last Friday, and my previous month has been extremely hectic. And because I was spending up to ten hours a day staring at words on a computer screen, I haven’t felt compelled to blog in my spare time. Now that the preview is finished, I hope to be back here sharing my thoughts far more frequently.

As an aside, you should all pick up ESPN The Magazine’s MLB preview. Not only does it have an interesting study of Manny Ramirez’s hitting approach (with a sidebar written by moi), but a great piece about the evolution of defensive analysis that features a sidebar by Nate Silver. Seriously, it's excellent stuff.

As you can tell, I’ve been thinking about baseball a lot lately, even more than usual. But in one of my spare moments, I checked out a YouTube video sent to me by my girlfriend, Margaret, that features a toddler dancing to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It).” Besides being left with the thought that this video is a little creepy, it got me thinking about the song, and great pop songs in general.

I’ll admit it, that’s a good fucking song. And I say this despite the fact that it helps reinforce the aspect of American culture that seems to equate love with how much you spend on an engagement ring. That, however, is a rant for another time.

Anyway, “Single Ladies” has all the elements of a great pop song. The most important of these elements being a hook you can sing along to. Every time I hear that song, I’m singing that freaking hook to myself the next six hours. Without fail. I was reading a story in Rolling Stone about The-Dream (nope, not a type), who wrote "Single Ladies", as well as Mary J. Blige's "Just Fine," Mariah Carey's "Touch My Body," and Rihanna's "Umbrella." The story was about how he is trying to follow the Kanye West route by using his career as a producer as a jumping off point for his own singing/rapping career. With the ability to write songs like that, I don't see how he can fail. That's a pretty killer lineup of kick-ass pop songs over the past two years.

This all got me thinking about great pop songs. My musical tastes typically lean towards 1990s hip-hop and garage/Springteen-esque rock, but I love a good pop song. And the following is a random list of pop songs thatt I think might be underappreciated by the masses. These are all famous songs, mind you, but songs that I think are probably better than they are given credit for.

Mark Morrison (Return Of The Mack): This is on my short list of, “if I were a major league baseball player, this would be my walk-up music.” I can’t really understand a word he says other than “return of the mack,” but he’s got such a laid-back delivery, and the groove is so smooth, I just can’t get enough of it. Speaking of baseball pump-up music . . .

Bizarre Inc. (I'm Gonna Get You): This isn't really a pop song, but more of a "early 90s fake techno" song. However, it's freaking catchy. You're lying if you don't enjoy Angie Brown piping in with "why waste your time, you know you're gonna be mine." I had sort of forgotten about this song until Oliver Perez joined the Mets. Every time he warms up before a home game, this song is playing, and every time I've been in the Mets clubhouse while reporting a story, I've always wanted to ask him about this song, but I never have the nerve. My guess is that someone once played it before one of his starts and he pitched really well. And since baseball players are a superstitious bunch, he stuck with it. Either that, or he has a soft spot for corny 90s techno. If so, I like him a lot more.

Billy Ocean (Caribbean Queen): I just noticed something about this song. Listen to the opening few bars, and write before the first verse, you can hear Billy Ocean say, “she 's simply . . . awesome.” This means there had to have been be some sort of conversation in the studio that went something like this:

BILLY: You know what would be great?

PRODUCER: I’m listening . . .

BILLY: If right before the first verse starts, I whisper, “she's simply . . . awesome.” Wouldn’t that be cool?

PRODUCER: You’re right, that would be cool!

(Listen closely, it's about 12 seconds in)


Kelly Clarkson (Since U Been Gone): I know this song is huge, but I actually think it might be under-appreciated. It might be the best pop song of the past 20 years, with the possible exception of . . .

Mariah Carey (We Belong Together): This seems to get less play that a lot of other Mariah hits, but listen to the second verse and try and tell me that this isn’t a transcendent pop song. I’m waiting.

Erasue (A Little Respect): I was reintroduced to the greatness of this song when "Scrubs" built an episode around it. It might the association with one of my favorite TV shows that might me such a fan of this song, but I can now never get tired of this song.



I know what you're thinking. "Mariah? Kelly Clarkson? Erasure? This guy's music taste is half-gay, half-fourteen-year-old girl."

What of it?